The special needs of children and women

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7507.34

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ education articles:

From

Limit by

The BMJ iPad app brings you the best of print and online, including live links to the latest news, blogs, video, and podcasts. Get the BMJ iPad app.
You can use bmj.com to help you with your continuing medical education. Find out about CME/CPD credits for BMJ articles
Keep up to date with cardiology: Access the latest cardiovascular medicine resources from across BMJ Group.
Countdown to London 2012: BMJ Group's Olympics portal highlights latest Olympics and sports medicine-themed research, comment and learning

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

John Seaman, independent consultant in overseas development,
Sarah Maguire (s_r_maguire@yahoo.co.uk), independent human rights consultant

Kent

The special needs of children

Children are more vulnerable to communicable diseases and environmental exposure than adults, have special dietary needs, and are generally dependent on their family for their material and emotional support.

Many of the most severe emergencies occur in poor countries. Poverty tends to exacerbate the impact of emergencies of all types: poor people live in low quality, damage-prone housing, often on marginal land at risk of landslide or flood. The children of the poor tend to have low nutritional status, increased exposure to communicable disease, low immunisation rates, high levels of intestinal parasites, and limited access to health care.

Queuing outside a clinic in Sudan

Earthquakes, floods, and other physical shocks

Trauma in these events may affect children disproportionally. In the 1976 Guatemala earthquake child mortality was generally higher than that of adults, but low in those less than 1 year old, attributed to the fact infants slept with their mother and were thus protected. Serious injury increased steadily with age, an effect assumed to result from the greater susceptibility to injury with increasing age.

View this table:

In this window
In a new window

Risk assessment for humanitarian emergencies

In the 1971 Bangladesh cyclone children aged less than 10 years made up about a third of the population but accounted for half of all deaths. Many people survived this storm by clinging to trees. Mortality was particularly high in young children and in women older than 15 years, probably because of women trying to protect small children, the relative physical weakness of these groups, and the effects of exposure as the cyclone continued for many hours.

Economic consequences of disasters

The economic impact on families affected by disasters may be considerable. Houses, standing crops, domestic food stocks, livestock, and goods may be lost.